


Maybe Just Half A Drink More

by FakePlastikTrees



Category: The Bold Type
Genre: Christmas fic, F/F, First Kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-24 13:57:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17101886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FakePlastikTrees/pseuds/FakePlastikTrees
Summary: It's the office Christmas party; Jane and Jacqueline find a moment alone together on the 44th floor.





	Maybe Just Half A Drink More

“Please help yourselves to drinks and food,” Richard tells the floor of dolled up, slightly inebriated Scarlet employees. “We hope the weather dies down in the next few hours. We’ll keep checking, but in the meantime, make yourselves comfortable, or party through it, you’re all relatively young, I think you can handle it.”

 

There’s a collective exclamation of excitement and Jacqueline shakes her head from her office, where she’s been the past fifteen minutes or so, telling Ian the weather’s stranded her in the office and she will likely not make it home. She’s just hung up when Richard catches her eye and shrugs.

 

_What better time for a blizzard than during a holiday party?_

 

At a different corner, Jane is knocking back a shot of something clear, holding onto her Santa hat so it doesn’t fall off. The face she makes when she drinks makes Jacqueline laugh, and she recalls a conversation she’d had with Ian only days prior.

 

_“Is there something going on between you and Jane?” He had asked the moment the elevator doors had closed._

 

_They were headed to lunch together and on their way out, Jane had stopped them for a quick hello. Jacqueline had not thought much of the exchange, but apparently, Ian had._

 

_“What?”_

 

 _“It’s just--the way you look at her, love. The way she looks at_ you _. It’s alright if there is, you know that. I’d just like to know. It’s been a long time since--”_

 

_“Nothing is going on,” she’d snapped, then softened the blow with a smile and a chaste kiss. “Promise.”_

 

She hadn’t felt as if she was lying, but now, watching Jane pour from a giant bottle of vodka into several glasses, Jacqueline felt the guilt, heavy in her stomach. Turning her attention to the glass of scotch on her desk, she lifted it and downed the entirety of it in one gulp, hoping the buzz would suss out whatever it was she was subconsciously working up in her mind.

 

Just then, the commotion she’d managed to muffle behind her closed door, briefly filtered into her office and she looked up in time to see Jane slip inside, carrying two very large, vibrant drinks.

 

“Hi,” she smiled as the noise shut out behind her. “I made you a drink.”

 

Jane’s dress was short, but modest otherwise, tastefully paired with black tights and impossibly high heels--still, it was short. Jacqueline had found that fleeting glances at Jane’s legs made her slightly nervous. She’d also noticed that the glances weren’t so fleeting as of late.

 

Jane walked slowly toward Jacqueline, surprising her by coming right up to her side, rather than sitting at the other end.

 

Jacqueline rolled her chair back a smidge and found her knees bumping into Jane’s legs as she turned to face her.

 

“Whoops!” Jane giggled, but didn’t step back, briefly touching Jacqueline’s shoulder before handing her a glass.

 

“Sorry,” She said as a bit of her own drink trickled down the glass and onto her hand, which she then brought up to her mouth to suck her finger clean as she leaned back against the desk.

 

Jacqueline’s mouth dropped open, but she recovered quickly, busying herself with tasting the sour-sweet drink. It worked, momentarily at least.

 

“Oh.” Jacqueline licked her lips and sucked in her cheeks through the lingering aftertaste. “What is this?”

 

“Just vodka and limoncello, with a tiny splash of cranberry,” replied Jane before taking a hearty drink from her glass, shuddering a little. “Ooh! Tastes like a Jolly Rancher.”

 

“Yes,” Jacqueline nodded, took another sip and found that the second try carried more of a kick that made her bones feel instantly warm. “It’s strong.”

 

“Really? I can’t taste it.”

 

Jacqueline watched Jane inspect her drink with fascination before she looked up with a smirk, “Probably not a good thing.”

 

“How many of those have you had?”

 

“Oh, the Jane Sloan special? Uh, about four. Plus the three or four I tasted for you before I got it just right.”

 

“Well, I’m touched that you would squander the remnants of your sobriety on me.”

 

They laughed then; it felt good to laugh with Jane. Maybe it was that she was a little drunk and that Jacqueline was getting there, because she couldn’t stop drinking Jane’s oh-so-special drink--perhaps it was only the freedom of after-work-hours, but it was nice nonetheless.

 

After the chuckles died down there was silence, and eye contact, and the realization that Jane was still so very close and biting her bottom lip in this particular way Jacqueline would almost classify as flirtatious.

 

Jane inhaled suddenly as if prepared to say something, but the words would not make it out as on the other side of Jacqueline’s glass walls, there was a game of beer pong set up that Richard appeared to be winning and the commotion demanded both their attention.

 

“Oh, he’s going to regret that later,” Jacqueline stated as they watched the party crowd around the game. “Richard has a strict no-fraternizing rule. He must be really drunk.”  

 

“Is that why you’re in here?” Jane asked, returning her attention to Jacqueline as she scoot up the desk to sit comfortably, her dress riding up and revealing more leg than Jacqueline had previously been privy to.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Do you also have a strict no-fraternizing rule? Are you hiding out in your office so we don’t see you drinking and get too comfortable?”

 

Quirking her brow, Jacqueline sat back in her chair and smartly retorted, “Doesn’t seem to have any sort of effect on you.”

 

Jane shrugged. “Alcohol tends to simmer down my neurosis.”

 

Jane’s eyes trailed down Jacqueline’s plunging neckline and this time there was no mistaking the intent.

 

“Do you want to see something?” She asked suddenly, jolting Jacqueline from the bubble they had created.

 

“Sure.”

 

“Okay.” Jane hopped off the desk and smoothed down her dress. “Come with me. Leave the drink.”

 

The party had officially relocated around Richard and his opponent, allowing them to slip out unnoticed. Somewhere along the way, Jane grabbed hold of Jacqueline and swiped a large bottle of vodka in passing.

 

Jacqueline glanced down when Jane dropped her hand and they had reached the elevator; she flexed her fingers at the loss as the elevator doors opened and they quickly boarded.

 

“Where are we going?”

 

“You know how the 44th floor is empty?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Well…” Jane bounced and bared her teeth in a wide smile.

 

Jacqueline laughed. “What?”

 

“Okay, there’s a corner office up there with a really amazing view and--well, you’ll see.”

 

Jacqueline eyed Jane suspiciously. “I don’t know how I feel about whatever it is you’ve been hiding up here.”

 

The doors opened to the 44th floor and Jane hurried out before she could further explain, leaving Jacqueline to follow suit--there was something eerie about sneaking around the darkened floor, up hallways flanked by empty desks, and yet she couldn’t get herself to go back.

 

“ _Jane_ ,” she warned as they turned onto a particularly dark corridor, the uneasiness temporarily distracting her from her Jane-related dilemma and her wandering eyes. “Please elaborate.”

 

They stopped at a closed door; Jane held onto the door as she looked over her shoulder at Jacqueline and quickly blurted, “Remember that Kimye shoot they first canceled and then decided to do last minute?”

 

Jacqueline winced at the memory. “Yes.”

 

“Well, Kat and I stayed late--really late--to help Sutton prepare and it got late and we were tired, so we came up here with a bunch of sleeping bags leftover from the Lumberjane shoot and we crashed here. But then, we kind of just--left it and, well, we sometimes hang out here when the fashion closet is taken.”

 

Jane waited for Jacqueline to give her a nod of approval before pushing the door open.

 

The office was smaller than Jacqueline’s but with definitely more windows, and a wide enough view of the night sky and the snow storm responsible for all the roadblocks. On the floor there were sleeping bags and blankets, and more than enough pillows. It was difficult to deny the allure--it reminded Jacqueline of _I Dream of Jeannie_.

 

“Sit, sit, sit!”

 

Jane waited eagerly by the door while Jacqueline toed her heels off and then, careful to keep the long slit of her maxi dress from revealing too much, sat down amongst a surprisingly comfortable cushioned pile.

 

“Okay, ready?”

 

“Ready for wh--oh wow.”

 

A switch was flipped and the windows were suddenly lit by fairy lights, from ceiling to floor, like a curtain of stars.

 

Jane flopped down beside Jacqueline and twisted the bottle of vodka open.

 

“Very rarely do you get to see stars, so we brought our own--we’ll take it all down soo, promise.”

 

Jacqueline smiled over at her and reached for the bottle.

 

“Give me a swig of that.”

 

They sat in silence for a while, passing the bottle back and forth as Jacqueline basked in the peaceful silence, the light bouncing against the darkened backdrop of the city--she was beginning to feel drunk and she couldn’t say she hated it.

 

Jane said something then that Jacqueline didn’t catch.

 

“What was that?”

 

“I said,” she repeated slowly, “I really like your dress.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

“I really like the uh, the cut.”

 

Jacqueline turned to her, peering at her over the bottle as she held it near her mouth; Jane was staring.

 

“Yours isn’t half bad.”

 

“Thanks.”

 

The voka was starting to go down like water.

 

Jacqueline was beginning to understand the appeal of the Jolly Rancher limoncello drink from hell now.

 

“I hope you know how much I appreciate everything you’ve done for me,” Jane said softly, smiling sheepishly when their eyes met. “For my career. I know--you’ve taken a lot of crap from the board since Paris, and--I just want  to tell you that you publishing my article meant more to me than you’ll ever know. So, thank you.”

 

“You’re welcome.”

 

“I know that usually I’m crying in your office about some drama in my life. That’s kind of our thing, but--I’m a good listener. I know you’re my boss, and it’s--anyway, I’m here if you need to vent.”

 

Smiling, heart beating too rapidly for her liking, Jacqueline set the bottle aside. They’d both had enough to drink for the night.

 

“Is that why brought me up here, Jane?”

 

“No,” She confidently replied, eyes full of far too much.

 

Jacqueline’s breath hitched. “Then why?”

 

“I guess I wanted to see what would happen.”

 

“What did you think would happen?”

 

Jane shrugged. “All I know is we’re stuck in the building for who knows how long, it’s snowing out, and I’ve been drinking because I can’t stop looking at you in that dress.”

 

The tension stretched out between them until Jacqueline could feel the vibration of it down her ribcage, through to her core. Jane seemed pained almost, and Jacqueline knew if she didn’t put an end to this, she would do something very unwise for both of them.

 

“Thank you for bringing me up here,” she said, then patted around in search of her shoes. “I should get back. Need to pass out some bonuses before people get too drunk.”

 

“Oh. Right, yeah.”

 

They put their shoes on, cut the lights, and soon Jacqueline was following Jane back through the darkened hallways, toward the elevator. The light in there was harsh, sobering. Jane was standing considerably further away now and this bothered Jacqueline.

 

This was a different tension and she did not like it. She could feel the electricity from moments earlier trailing them however, and before she can stop herself, turned to Jane and kissed her, gently guiding her back until they meet the wall.

 

Jane kissed her back, hands high on Jacqueline’s waist as lips parted and heads tilted accordingly to deepen the connection.

 

It was easier than Jacqueline imagined it would be, and it was sweeter than she could have hoped. It was also overwhelmingly hot. She kept her hands where she thought it would be safe to; one cradling Jane’s neck and the other buried in her hair, but Jane was fully giving into the poorly made decision

 

She palmed Jacqueline’s breasts, sighing as if she had been waiting forever, and the act made Jacqueline’s head swim. She took a chance with a nip at Jane’s lip and smiled at the whimper of a moan she got in return before drawing back in time for the elevator to come to a stop.

 

“Merry Christmas, Jane,” Jacqueline said, taking a few steps back.

 

Jane stared back, lips parted and swollen, bracing herself against the wall and looking as if she might pounce any second.

 

Deciding she’d better have a talk with Ian soon, Jacqueline moved to exit the elevator, but not before adding, “See you in the new year.”

  


**Author's Note:**

> So, this is rough, I know. But I wanted to write something for Christmas. I hope you all like it!


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